Better Late Than Never
by Malvolia
Summary: Rushing not to be late for Lois & Clark's wedding makes Oliver regret that he and Chloe never really had their own.  With his past, it's nice to come across a regret he can do something about. COMPLETE
1. Another Wedding

Oliver Queen frowned at his reflection in the mirror, adjusted the knot on his tie with an air of futility, and then yanked the whole thing off to start over just as his wife entered from the master bathroom.

"What are you_ doing_?" Chloe asked, rushing to his rescue and taking the tie into her own hands. "We have to be at the church in twenty minutes, and Star City's Best-Dressed Man of the Year forgets how to tie a Windsor?"

"You don't think it's a bad omen?" he groused. "Serving as best man again in a wedding you ruined the first time?"

"Not unless you've been taken over by Darkseid again, no. Any Omega signs you haven't told me about?"

"Hey. Not funny."

"Serves you right," Chloe said unmercifully, and tweaked the tie a fraction higher than it needed to be. Oliver stuck a finger at the top of the knot and pulled it back down. "Besides…oh, you know."

"I still think 'Boy Scout' fits him better than 'Superman.' Trust Clark to put stock in a church wedding with all the trimmings. What's wrong with the good ol' Justice of the Peace? Or, come to that, waking up the nearest minister within smartphone radius? That one worked for us."

Chloe raised her eyebrows. "Even magically inebriated, I don't think Clark would hammer on a complete stranger's door in the middle of the night. Nor would he have the cash on hand to entice her to perform a ceremony instead of call the police. Besides, at least he will _remember_ today. It's not the same when you have to track people down to get the details."

Oliver watched her put in her emerald earrings and thanked his lucky stars yet again for Zatanna. He had always suspected that if it hadn't been for him pulling out the other half of her marriage license, Chloe would've taken some imagined high road and still be denying that they could be better heroes together than they were apart.

"I can't imagine our wedding could have surpassed anything that's followed it," he replied. "It just keeps getting better."

"You're even smoother now than you were then, Queen," she replied, favoring him with a smile and a quick kiss before turning to grab her purse from the dresser.

"Clark has the rings?"

"Yup. I'm surprised they've held up to as much on-and-off as they've been through."

Oliver pulled a folded piece of paper from his inner jacket pocket. "Which reminds me, do you think the minister wants the original marriage license, or will we have a second one done up?"

Chloe leaned against him and threaded her fingers with his. "We did date it when we signed it. Probably a second one, considering the happy couple is going for 'Never married before' even to their friends and 'Barely tolerating each other' to everybody else."

"Makes being the very public wife of a known arrow-toting hero seem blissfully uncomplicated, huh?"

She laughed. "At least we're not making our friends waste a perfectly good Saturday afternoon watching us get married after we've been married for seven years already." Her eyes widened as her husband's lit up. "Ohhh, no. No, no, no."

"We might owe them back for that," he said innocently.

"That's not where I was going with…. Speaking of going," she said, backing towards the door and pulling him with her, "we have to. _Now_."

Oliver tucked his thought away with a promise to himself: someday in the not-too-distant future, he would marry his wife again.

Clark and Lois weren't the only ones who could get away with that.


	2. You Are Hastily Invited

It was only thanks to the criminal element of Metropolis that the Queens could make it to the wedding at all. The phone call alerting them had come late Friday night.

"Lois?" Chloe croaked into her cell as Oliver mumbled incoherently and buried his head in his pillow. "How'd it go?" She grimaced into the darkness as soon as the words left her mouth. You didn't call your cousin the night of your wedding if it went well. Even the night of your second wedding to the same man.

"There was a bomb in an elevator uptown. Or…that's what we heard. Turned out to be a, uh…a prank."

"Not very funny."

"Well, no, it isn't. Wasn't."

"Did Clark catch the prankster?"

Lois snorted. "For now, but I have a feeling this one's gonna be a repeater."

Chloe nodded, despite the fact that her cousin couldn't see her. After seventeen years of fending off the forces of weirdness and evil, she could spot a likely repeater herself. She heard Clark's voice in the background of Lois' call.

"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, Smallville," Lois said. "Anyway, Chlo, the point of the call is that we missed the wedding tonight, but we've got a quick reschedule for Saturday afternoon. Can you make it?"

"_This_ Saturday afternoon? Like, tomorrow?"

"What's tomorrow?" muttered Oliver. Chloe held up a hand to gesture for silence.

"Tomorrow," said Lois. "I know Ollie had that late meeting tonight that he couldn't skip for the wedding of some reporters he 'barely knows,' but maybe if you didn't have plans tomorrow…?"

"I don't know, we have a charity golf outing that we…." She startled as Oliver grabbed the phone from her hand.

"_Somebody_ save me from a charity golf outing," he said. "When's the wedding this time?"


	3. Getting Ready

One of the many side benefits of being Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Queen was being able to get ready for a Metropolis-based wedding in their own bedroom. Even though Oliver had dropped most of his business interests in the city, they had kept his penthouse and made frequent public comments about how much they enjoyed the city itself. All the sound bites paid dividends in clandestine visits with Lois and Clark, whose relationship had become a more closely guarded secret than Clark's superpowers had ever been. (Oliver kissed Chloe at public functions in Metropolis with a regularity that reflected his eyerolls every time Lois arrived at their front door half an hour after Clark had flown in through the window.)

The drive from the Metropolis penthouse to the church only took ten minutes, but Lois was already pacing in the vestibule when they arrived. The first time he'd seen it, Oliver had thought they were late. But now, on the...was this the eleventh or twelfth try? He'd lost track, and just really hoped it wasn't the thirteenth. His friends could use all the luck they could get. Anyway, with the wedding attempts in the double digits, Oliver wasn't worried about his own timeliness.

"Don't tell me. An oil tanker just overturned in the Gulf of Mexico, or a school bus full of orphan children is hanging halfway off a bridge, or a cat is stuck up a tree..."

Lois rolled her eyes and grabbed her cousin by the wrist. "You're late, Ollie," she said as she shepherded Chloe into a side room. "Clark's waiting for you across the hall."

Oliver checked his wrist automatically, even though he hadn't worn a watch regularly for ten years.

"You're not _exactly_ late," said Clark apologetically from the doorway Lois had indicated. "It's just that Lois thinks it'd be best if we got started sooner rather than later, and you two were the only people besides my mom who she cared about being here when we did start."

Martha Kent had been present at all of the abortive wedding ceremonies, but Lois hadn't seen much point in inviting her father after that first one. She had just told him, honestly, that it was a memorable event. Thankfully, they'd been planning to do wedding pictures outdoors, anyway, so the general had even seen those. As for the video he had been expecting, she just said the videographer had run into problems. As for why she and Clark usually acted like they barely tolerated each other? Well, for that it was fortunate that her father didn't ever visit them at work.

"Sooner rather than later is a good game plan," Oliver said, following Clark into the room where he'd been preparing for the wedding. "I swear, Clark, if you hear one more emergency starting at the same time as your nuptials, I'm going to break out the blue kryptonite until you get through the ceremony."

"Very funny."

"I'd think it was a commitment issue, but then, you and Lois have been legally married for years, so I'm starting to think it's a sign of a deeper problem."

"And what's that?" asked Clark, handing Oliver a small black ring box.

Oliver looked at him somberly. "You just really love drama. Or weddings. Maybe both, I haven't decided yet."

Clark shook his head and smiled. "Neither have I."

Oliver opened the box in his hands and stared down at the rings.

"So, how do you guys plan these, anyway? Is there a new proposal every time, or is it more like, 'Hey, first weekend in June is open, wanna try this wedding thing again?'"

"When it's Lois asking about it, usually the latter," Clark grinned.

"But _you _do the repeated proposal bit?"

"Thinking that Smallville really _did_ specialize in corn?" his friend asked drily. "Or…." He stopped and looked Oliver straight in the eye. "You're not really asking about us."

Oliver shrugged. "She's always wanted to remember something about it."

There was a knock on the door, followed by Martha Kent's voice. "Ready to go?"

Clark eyed Oliver shrewdly. "Yeah," he called back. "I think we all are." He clapped his best man on the shoulder. "Fourteenth time's the charm, right?"

Oliver breathed a sigh of relief at the number and stepped out into the vestibule, where Chloe was waiting for him.

"Fourteenth!" she mouthed, holding up two sets of crossed fingers. He grinned at her, beautiful as always in her favorite shade of green, and his stomach flipped.

What on earth had he said to her to get her to marry him? And what could he say to get her to do it again?


	4. Girl Talk

Lois raised a hand to decline the champagne flute Chloe was holding out to her.

"What's this? Lois Lane refusing a celebratory beverage?"

"Just water for me tonight, cuz," Lois replied. "I'm not taking the slightest chance of having my memory of this afternoon disappear. I am _not_ risking turning 1-for-14 into 0-for-14."

"Tired of weddings?" laughed Chloe, handing off the extra flute to an empty-handed passerby and settling into the chair next to Lois.

"Tired of _my _weddings. Or rather, my almost-weddings."

"Well, congratulations on pulling this one off with the only hitch being yours and Clark's."

"It's kind of surreal, actually, after seven years of planning and re-planning. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but…surreal."

"You'll still be taking the rings off at the office?"

"Oh, yeah," said Lois. "I haven't worn him down on that yet. Honestly, it's kind of sexy to play it undercover. You and Oliver don't know what you're missing."

Chloe shook her head. "No, thanks. I prefer being out of the relational closet, thank you very much. Anyway, there aren't any closets open to us, short of an acrimonious fake-divorce. And that would be pretty tough on Cal."

"Calvin Gabriel Queen is the son of heroes. He could handle it. Who's watching him back in Star City?"

"Bart ran up."

Lois snorted. "_Bart_?"

"I know, but Cal _loves_ him, and Oliver feels safe about it."

"You don't?"

"I trust Bart, but I'm never sure what he might 'accidentally' let slip. His mouth moves about as fast as his legs."

The two women shuddered only half-jokingly at the thought of the stories Bart could tell. He'd been a hero long enough that he could maintain Justice League secrets, but he had a lot of "when I first knew your parents" stories at his disposal, too, and might not feel as strongly about keeping those to himself.

In the natural conversational lull that followed, Chloe's gaze drifted over to Oliver. He was standing with Clark, and at the sight of her the two of them threw identical waves in her direction and then turned away.

"Please tell me he's not."

"He's not," said Lois. "You did know you were speaking audibly, right? Mind letting me in on who isn't what?"

Chloe rolled her eyes. "It's just…. Based on something he said earlier, I think Oliver might propose."

"To you?"

"No, to Clark," Chloe snapped.

"Not seeing it," said Lois. "Clark's as tired of his weddings as I am of mine."

"Funny."

"Seriously, Chloe, what would be so bad about Ollie proposing again? Especially since none of us remembers how it went down the first time. It'd be kind of nice to watch _you_ walk down the aisle for a change."

Chloe sighed. "I don't know, it's just…I don't want Ollie thinking I feel these last seven years didn't count. "

Lois shook her head and grinned. "Sweetie, don't take this the wrong way, but Oliver proposing to you? Not really about the way you feel."

"Excuse me?"

"Clark has proposed to me…." Lois stopped and counted on her fingers, muttering under her breath. "The phone booth…the top of the Daily Planet globe…that time in Cairo…the barn loft…halfway over the Atlantic…the fortress…the phone booth again…oh, come on, I know there was another one somewhere in there…."

"Didn't he have Cal bring you his Cracker Jack ring once?"

"The Cracker Jack proposal! Yes! Literally the corniest one. Eight times. The point is," she said, "the first one was good enough to last me the rest of my life, but what can you do? Men are hopeless romantics."

"I don't even need _one _proposal," said Chloe. "To remember, anyway." She laughed. "Besides, if I'd have been sober, I probably wouldn't have said yes."

Lois cocked her finger at her cousin.

"Ahhh…." Chloe lowered her head to her hands.

"I don't say this often," said Lois, "but maybe I'm wrong. This could be about the way you feel, after all."


	5. Guy Talk

The wedding reception ran late. Or rather, it ran later than Oliver had expected, since really he hadn't expected the wedding to happen at all. Judging from the slightly dazed but pleased looks on Lois and Clark's faces, they were feeling the same way. When the Queen limo finally pulled away, the bride and groom were in it and the Queens were standing at the door of the reception hall, waving so hard Oliver thought he might sprain a wrist.

They spent Sunday being seen around Metropolis, strolling along the main streets and lunching at a café with outdoor tables. A quick tour of an art gallery, and then it was home to Star City, arriving late that evening.

Bart rounded the corner to the entryway as they shut the door of the apartment behind them. His finger was acting as a placeholder somewhere in the last few pages of _Chariots of Fire_.

"Is Cal asleep yet?" Chloe asked after greetings were exchanged.

"Maybe. Just went to bed five minutes before you got back. I picked this book off the shelf and I've been reading it ever since. Which reminds me, I'm almost"—a slight breeze came from the book as the pages flipped rapidly—"done! Man, that was good. I've only seen the movie before, and I'll tell you what, for a story about running, it's pretty darn slow."

No movie had ever been fast enough for Bart. He preferred books for that reason. Thankfully, he'd never had trouble slowing himself down for Cal. He always said it was a relief to spend time with somebody closer to his own energy level.

"Good, I'm glad he…."

The thud of small, rapid footfalls sounded in the hallway. "I'm not asleep! I'm not asleep!" Cal declared in an alert voice, throwing his arms around his mother's legs and then quickly pushing away again. "Did you guys see me run? I'm almost as fast as Uncle Bart!"

"Just about, buddy," Bart chuckled.

"Except usually he lets me win, so maybe not really. Oh, Mom, guess what we had for dinner?"

"Raw coffee beans?" Chloe retorted, shooting an amused look at Bart.

"What? No, gross, Mom. Macaroni and cheese, and I mixed the cheese part all by myself. Oh, and guess what?"

His parents allotted him a generous ten minutes before cutting off the still flowing stream of "guess whats," but when Chloe couldn't stifle a yawn in the middle of an exuberant story about visiting the dog park, Oliver reached down and scooped up his son under one arm.

"Thanks again for coming up," he said to Bart, over the sound of Cal's excited giggling.

"Anytime. And I know you're gonna offer me the guest bedroom again tonight, but I've gotta be across the c…um, town…tomorrow morning, so I'm gonna jet."

Cal waved Bart out the door and then grabbed Oliver's hand. "It's Dad's turn to put me to bed. Mom did it last time."

Chloe didn't protest. From the exhaustion apparent on her face as she said goodnight to their son, Oliver was willing to bet that she'd be asleep by the time he got to their room.

Unlike his mother, Cal showed no signs of wanting to sleep. "What did you do in Metropolis, Dad?"

Oliver shrugged as he tucked the boy in bed. "The usual. Walked around, looked at interesting things. Went to a gallery this time."

"Does 'gallery' mean 'wedding'?"

"No, a gallery is a place where you can look at art."

"Because Uncle Bart said you went to a wedding, _ahh_gain, and good luck with _that_. Why would you need good luck at a wedding? Don't you just need a man and a lady?"

His father ruffled his hair. "Someday it won't seem so easy."

Cal sighed. "I wish I could go to a wedding. Uncle Bart says they're boring and that when I get big I'd much rather babysit, too, but how do I get to know for real if I don't go to even just one?" His eyes lit up. "Hey, next time you get married, Dad, can I come?"

"I'm already married. To your mom. You don't like the way that one's working out?"

"Yeah, but Uncle Bart said you were going to like the bajillionth wedding for the same people, so I thought…."

"_I _think maybe your mom is right about the potential risks of leaving your Uncle Bart with a child." Cal looked confused, but Oliver cut off his questions by raising his hand and leaning in closer. "But just between us guys?" Cal bounced happily. ("Just between us guys" always got that reaction.) "I'm going to ask your mom to marry me." He grinned and took on Cal's tone from earlier. "_Ahh_gain."

"_Yes! _Thanks, Dad! I won't say _anything_. I promise. Keeping secrets is what I'm best at."

His father eyed him dubiously. "This from the kid who tells us what's inside every present he ever gives us before we've gotten one corner of wrapping up."

"Nobody says I _can't_ say that kind of stuff. I'm talking about important secrets, like how I know that the Clark Kent in that comic book Mom reads to me is the same guy as _Uncle_ Clark Kent."

"Guess you'd have to be pretty slow to miss that one."

"Uh, yeah, 'cause his name in the comic is _Clark Kent_." Cal rolled his eyes. "It's pretty obvious, Dad. I hope that's not a for real comic book that like anybody could buy in a bookstore. I don't think Uncle Clark would like that."

Oliver shook his head. "It's a very limited issue," he said. "A present from a friend. The one who helped your mom and I when we had our first wedding, actually."

"How're you gonna ask her this time? I could look for another Cracker Jack ring."

Oliver laughed. "Thanks for the offer, sidekick. But I'd like to handle this one solo. And now it's time for you to go to sleep."

"Okay," said Cal, reaching up for his bedtime hug.

As Oliver was closing the door, he caught a whispered, "Dibs on ringbearer."

"Absolutely."


	6. Places I Remember

A day in Metropolis sounded perfect.

It had been a few months since Lois and Clark had successfully completed their wedding ceremony, and the Queens hadn't made it out to their sister city since then. Chloe hadn't known how much she'd been missing that until she got Oliver's note.

"All business plans cancelled for the day. Bart's coming up for Cal. Meet you at Watchtower. (The first one.)"

She tapped the paper against the steering wheel as she pulled up to her destination. She hadn't visited the original Watchtower in over a year now, not since Arthur had convinced the Justice League that it would be to their advantage to have their planetary base underwater. Oliver had kept up the property, "just in case," fending off proposals from developers. Most recently, he had been approached with an offer from a group that wanted to set up a museum commemorating heroes. Chloe still laughed at the memory of Clark's face when he heard that one.

Watchtower may have seemed quiet to anybody else entering it, but to Chloe it pulsed with life. Every piece of technology in the place was active, and the monitors were lit up with dossiers of heroes as they had been in what Lois called the B.C. era—"Before Cape." (Lois always did see the world of heroes with Clark in the forefront.)

Chloe ran her fingers nostalgically over the desk by the window, experiencing a brief pang at the thought of Tess Mercer. "You died a hero," she murmured, as she had countless times in the past, and the grief mingled with gratitude.

She scanned the upper level. It seemed as empty as the first. "Oliver?" she called out.

All the monitors but one blinked off, and that one filled with Oliver's face. "Hey, Chloe. I'm not exactly here."

"You said this is where you wanted to meet."

He shrugged. "I added a few stops. Check behind this monitor."

She walked behind the monitor and found an arrow. The triadic point and green fletching looked familiar. A memorable night in at Watchtower flashed back at her.

"Okay, I didn't think this part out well," said Oliver's voice. "Come back around here."

Chloe came out to face the monitor and held up the arrow. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Depends. Are you thinking it's from our first archery lesson?"

"The _same_ arrow?"

"What can I say? I'm a romantic at heart."

She laughed.

"This is the first place I kissed you. The first place you heard me say that I loved you."

"The latter isn't one of my favorite moments in our personal history, what with your impending doom on my mind."

"But I would've gone to it gladly," he said. "Because I heard you say you loved me, too."

"Oliver…."

"Tour's not over yet," he interrupted. "Meet me at the back room of the Isis Foundation."

"That's been closed for ages," she started to say, but the screen flickered off.

* * *

><p>Chloe was glad she had decided to drive herself to Metropolis. After that first stop, it would have made her crazy to think that the driver knew the agenda she hadn't known.<p>

She hadn't been sure what she would find at the Isis Foundation. When she had moved hero headquarters to Watchtower, she had allowed the lease to expire. After her last stop, though, it wasn't a surprise to find that the old sign hung out front, and the interior signage was either the original work or a very good reproduction.

The doors were all unlocked. When she entered the office, it was like stepping back in time.

"Oliver?" she asked again, not really expecting him to be there. There was no answer. On a hunch, she crossed to the desk and opened the top drawer. A remote lay inside. She picked it up, pointed it at the bookcase, and pressed a button.

The doors slid open to reveal a computer and a bank of monitors. Oliver smiled down at her from the center.

"You made it."

"I'd say _you _made it," Chloe responded, gesturing around her. "I know for a fact that this place was emptied nine years ago."

"Let a guy have a moment, why don't you?"

Chloe suddenly and incongruously remembered what Lois had said at her wedding reception, about proposals not being all about the women, and suddenly realized that memory probably wasn't so incongruous. She held her tongue and nodded.

"Do you remember what you said to me the night you decided to become Watchtower?"

She thought for a moment. "I remember saying that I'd learned not to live somebody else's life. And I remember you saying something to the effect that you wished you'd gotten a dose of the Zatanna dust."

He grinned. "Call me biased, but my turn at the magic lamp turned out the best. But I meant what you said after that."

She shook her head.

"You said, 'You already know what you really want. We all do. We just don't listen.'" He paused, and even through the screen Chloe could feel his intensity. "That's when I knew."

"When you knew…."

"More on that later. You're not done with the tour."

"Where to next, the Metro Coffee Stop?"

His face fell.

"Not wired enough, huh?" she asked.

"I could change that…."

She held her hands up to forestall him. "No, Oliver, that's not…everything's fine."

"Really?"

"Really. We have more than enough public moments. I'm liking the one-on-one time." She grinned sheepishly. "I just…kind of liked the part where you said I saved your life."

"Every day."

She smiled. "So, not the Metro Coffee Stop…Queen Tower loft?"

"Great minds think alike," he said. "See you there."

"Getting impatient, Mr. Queen?" The screen had gone blank before she finished the sentence. "I'm guessing that's a yes."

* * *

><p>"I hate to think how fast you drove to get here."<p>

"We _live_ here," Chloe said to Oliver's image on the monitor. "I know all the back ways. But I'm beginning to suspect that you're moving backwards through the story of us, so you're probably not bringing me here because it's our Metropolis home away from home."

"You're right," he said. "Don't get me wrong, I definitely have a lot of great memories from the later days. But you're here now because…"

"…of the time Clark sent me and I decided to make a big deal about how I knew everything about the nascent Justice League?"

"…because that was the first time you let me know you knew I was Green Arrow, and not only did you blow past that like it _wasn't_ a big deal, you jumped right in to the team like you belonged there."

"Strange. I don't remember you having such a glowing reaction at that first meeting. As far as being part of the team…I seem to recall the term 'sidekick'…."

"Yeah, well, I seem to recall you using that term to describe yourself a few times, back in the day. But I've had some time to revise my original opinions, and you've leveled up with each revision."

Chloe shook her head. "Don't tell Cal that's possible. Not yet, anyway."

"Absolutely not. I'm hoping he'll be happy with 'sidekick' for a while still."

She looked towards the stairs. "So where are you, anyway?"

"One more stop."

Her eyebrows twitched upward. "Seriously? As in a three-hour-away stop?"

"Not if you take the shortcuts. And you do know all the shortcuts."

"To recap, I started my day in Star City, drove out to Metropolis for three brief conversations in three different locations, and am now headed out to Smallville."

"Yup."

"Just like old times."

* * *

><p>Chloe Sullivan had spent more hours on the Kent farm than she could count. She had shared memories here with most of the important people in her life. Jonathan and Martha had been like second parents, and Clark…well, her history with Clark would fill a book. Several books.<p>

But then, since erasing all digital traces of herself, the only way Chloe Sullivan existed was as "Chloe Sullivan Queen."

And that's how she liked it.

The darkness of the barn blinded her after the brightness of the sun outside. She closed her eyes, inhaling the familiar scents and feeling thankful that Lois and Clark had decided to rent the place out instead of selling it. Not that its sale would have prevented Oliver from accessing it, she thought, the corners of her mouth quirking upward.

"Wow."

Her eyes flew open. Oliver was standing a few paces in front of her.

"In person you are _really_…wow…."

She grimaced. "Clark _told_ you I said that?"

Oliver grinned and took a few steps towards her. "To his credit, he didn't tell me until after he knew we were together."

"And to _my_ credit, you _are_ really wow."

"Clark and Lois had told me about you, obviously, but then when you came barging into that barn…I didn't really know what to do with you."

"And now you do?"

"Yeah," he said, reaching for her hands. "What I want to do with you is to _be _with you—every day for the rest of my life. And I wanted you to remember that I said it."

"I don't know," she said, moving closer. "I'm pretty forgetful. You might have to remind me."

"Every day for the rest of my life."

She smiled and leaned towards him. He leaned back.

"Wait a sec. I'm not done." He reached into his pocket and drew out an emerald-studded ring. "Chloe Anne Sullivan Queen," he said, "I am one hundred percent sober, and one hundred percent sure I want you to be my wife. Will you marry me? In public, this time?"

"Oliver Jonas Queen," Chloe said teasingly, "the answer…." Her face grew solemn, and a shadow of fear crossed Oliver's face. "Seven years ago, I don't think the answer would have been yes. And I'm sorry. But I didn't know then what I know now—what you knew way before I did: we truly are better together than we could ever be apart. So this is what I want _you_ to remember." She gripped his hand tighter, and her eyes sparkled with tears. "The answer is yes."

The space between them closed.


	7. Before the Wedding

Chloe sighed as she peeked out through the curtains to the church parking lot.

"More cars than you hoped for, huh?" Lois asked.

"I thought giving _The Daily Planet_ exclusive rights to cover the wedding would cut down on some of this."

Lois raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Okay," Chloe acquiesced. "'Hoped' is again the operative word."

"Reason number three hundred eighty-nine why I'm glad Clark never went public with his superhero status."

"Or ever became the head of a multinational corporation," Chloe added a little caustically. "Or was voted half of the most beautiful couple in your city."

"Touché, bride-to-be."

Chloe groaned. "Eloping was a good idea. Why didn't we do that again?"

There was a knock from low down on the door. "I think this is part of your answer," said Lois.

Chloe opened the door to reveal Cal, his hands covering his eyes.

"Is it bad luck for _all_ boys to see the bride before the wedding, or just Dad?"

Chloe looked at Lois and shrugged. "Just Dad," she answered. "But we're not big on wedding superstitions."

"Oh, so that's just Uncle Clark and Aunt Lois," said Cal.

"With as many weddings as we tried, big guy, we needed all the luck we could get. But that reminds me..." She pulled out a small blue bow and handed it to her cousin.

"Didn't you wear this for wedding number thirteen? Which did not happen?"

"Which should not matter because you're not big on wedding superstitions."

"What superstition is a bow?" asked Cal.

"It's not the bow, it's the color," said Lois. "A bride is supposed to have 'something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.'"

"Do you have all four of those?" asked Cal.

"Well, Clark is an old friend," said Chloe, "and _you're_ new since last time."

Her son's eyebrows furrowed, then shot up with inspiration. "You can borrow my tie!"

Chloe grabbed his hands as he reached up towards his neck. "Uh-uh. You're not getting out of wearing that. Don't you want to match your dad?"

"I _did_," he said. "But you wouldn't let me wear my Green Arrow costume."

"Well, Dad's not wearing that today."

Lois got down to Cal's level and put her hands on his shoulders. "Big heroes start out with small sacrifices, Cal-el."

"Aunt Lois, will you tell me a secret?"

"I can't cook," Lois said solemnly.

"That's not a secret," he said. "And I mean, am I actually named after Uncle Clark?"

Lois' expression grew more rigid. "Why would you think that? Is your name actually 'Clark'?"

He gave Chloe an aggrieved expression she saw frequently when he felt he was being stonewalled. Oliver called it his "Mom-face."

"Zatanna sent us a comic book a few months back about Superman's life in Smallville," she said to Lois. "And you have been calling him Cal-el with alarming frequency since we named him."

"You named him _Cal_vin Gabri_el_!"

"Yeah, and because we don't pronounce it like that, it was _subtle_, Lo."

"I knew it," Cal smirked. "Okay, Mom, I'll wear the tie."

"Good," said Chloe, smoothing it down, "because my lucky color is green, not blue."

Courtney Whitmore entered the room in Stargirl attire. "Ready when you are."

"I didn't even get a quote yet," Lois protested.

"I would marry Oliver Queen every day for the rest of my life," said Chloe. "And today I am marrying him for every day of the rest of my life."

Lois whipped a pen and pad from her bag. "You've gotten really good at this public persona thing. I'm running with it."

* * *

><p>The church was full, and since the benefit of being an uncloseted superhero was that your superhero friends could drop in on you without raising suspicions, several in the audience were sporting leather and spandex looks. In addition to Stargirl, the Flash and Black Canary had managed to make it. Lois cast a quick look around and mentally added a line to her article: "apparently, the Dark Knight doesn't do weddings."<p>

Clark was waiting for her behind the press line, crowded in with reporters from the _Star City Register_, the_ Gotham Gazette_, and a dozen other news outlets. "Miss Lane," he nodded awkwardly.

"At ease, Kent. It's a wedding."

Clark sputtered and flushed bright red. Lois bit her lower lip to keep from smiling. He got better at this disguise every day.

"Don't get invited to many weddings, huh?"

"Invited? No, I don't get _invited_ to many. I don't cover that many, either," he said, a little louder on the last sentence for the benefit of the _Gotham Gazette_ society beat reporter who had been shooting odd looks at the star reporters for the _Daily Planet_.

"Don't whine. Heroes are _my_ territory, especially when they've been known to work with our man in red and blue. And you're with me."

"So what does Mrs. Queen's dress look like?"

"I don't know, I wasn't paying attention. How's the groom holding up?"

"Pretty well. Already being married takes the pressure off."

"So I've heard."

"Must be hard to be a superhero," Clark said.

"You mean with the media circus?"

Clark gestured to the front, where Oliver stood alone next to the minister. "Not having friends close enough to stand up with you at your wedding. Must be lonely."

Lois shifted as if to get a better view of Oliver. The back of her hand rested against Clark's.

"There's more than one way to stand by someone, Smallville. I'm sure Queen has friends closer and better than most of these people could ever imagine."

Her partner pushed lightly on her hand, then starting taking notes on the floral arrangements. Odds were Lois wasn't paying attention to those, either.


	8. After the Wedding

In later years, they would have a few standout memories that weren't influenced by the photos, the videos, or the press coverage. For example...

Oliver would remember the flashbulbs going off as Cal began his measured walk down the aisle, grinning proudly; seeing his wife enter the doorway behind their son; and feeling like the luckiest man on the planet.

Lois would remember her irritation at the inane babbling from that _Gotham Gazette_ society woman who rattled off details about Chloe's dress, and what kind of sleeves it had, and how little lace, and who designed it, and completely disregarded the sheepish grin on her face that for two seconds made her look like a teenager again.

Chloe would remember the little wave Lois gave her while pretending to shoo away a fly; the wink from Cal as her own walk down the aisle drew to a close; and Oliver whispering, "Not such a non-event this time," before joining hands with her to say their vows.

Clark would remember Lois pretending to be tipsy as an excuse to dance with him at the reception, and how she stifled back laughter when he faked tripping over her toes for the fifth or sixth time.

And Cal would not let anybody forget that he got to the front of the church just exactly on time, "right when my ringbearer song ended and Mom's bride song started."

Chloe thought she would remember their vows without help, but she didn't. So it was a good thing Oliver framed them for her as a wedding gift.

"Chloe Anne Sullivan Queen, I don't care what day it is, or how you're dressed—it's always good to see you walk towards me. Eight years ago, we made a promise to each other that we'd walk together over all the crazy paths of life. Today is to thank you for honoring that, because I think we'd both say it's been crazier than we would've expected, but better, too. I don't know how I would do all of this without you, and I never want to find out. I want to keep walking with you, and even though you're tough enough to handle the rough patches, I still want to make them easier for you, like you make them easier for me. I love you, and I promise to keep proving that to you for the rest of our lives."

"Oliver, you are the most amazing man I have ever known. With you, I feel safe in a way that makes me feel I can do anything. I feel free in a way that makes me feel connected. You are my wings, and you are my roots, and wings and roots don't sound like they'd work together, but in all the craziness of our lives, you and I have always managed to make sense of us. You are _my_ hero, and you would be even if you never wore green again. You will always be my hero, and I will always be your right-hand woman. No matter what."

* * *

><p>As the reception drew to a close, Cal was left in the care of the Flash, with instructions that Flash was to take Cal to Lois and Clark's place as soon as he got the opportunity, and that by no means should he make an unscheduled stop in Tokyo "on the way" like he did last time. Oliver and Chloe said their farewells to the assembled guests and entered the waiting limo after one last group hug as a family.<p>

"See you when we get back, sidekick," Oliver called out the window to Cal.

"Have fun with Uncle Clark and Aunt Lois," said Chloe.

"And Uncle Bart," Cal added.

Chloe sighed. "Not _too_ much fun with Uncle Bart, okay?"

"Don't worry, Mom. We'll have appropriate fun."

The Flash slapped Cal on the back good-naturedly. "Don't worry, Mr. and Mrs. Queen. I'll keep an eye on Cal and this 'Bart' fellow."

Oliver put a restraining hand on Chloe's arm as the limo pulled away. They settled back against the seats.

"Chloe Queen, you just reaffirmed your vows to last year's Sexiest Man in Star City. What are you going to do next?"

"'Last year's' is only according to the _Register_. It's eight years running by my tally. And counting." She leaned into him. "A honeymoon is next on _my_ agenda. After that…back to more of that 'rest of our lives' business we've been working on for those eight years."

"And counting."

As his wife laughed and pulled him in for a kiss, Oliver received further confirmation of something he had always believed about life with Chloe: it just kept getting better.


End file.
